The Reception of Fiddle Music in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

Our modern ideas about Scottish fiddle music have shaped the writing of its history. The difficulty of categorising it as either folk music or art music has resulted in ambiguity, primarily because these categories are largely products of the nineteenth century, and so are unsuitable for describing eighteenth-century practices. It is the aim of this paper to interrogate the history of Scottish fiddle music in the eighteenth century by focusing on its functions rather than origins. The status of the fiddler in society will be highlighted by comparing case-studies of Niel Gow and William Marshall, and the aestheticisation of fiddle music will be investigated by exploring the development of instrumental slow airs and laments.